Following a public outcry, the city of Culver City dug into its files and discovered what officials believe is a document that could ensure that a decades-old ice arena remains an ice rink. City officials informed the rink's owner and the new lessee, Planet Granite, of its findings last week - potentially putting the brakes on a plan to convert the 52-year-old rink into a rock-climbing and yoga facility. City officials said a use variance granted in 1960 prohibits the use of the property for anything except an ice rink.

Skating fans in Culver City were celebrating a temporary victory after city officials dug out an obscure document that advocates hope can keep an ice rink in the neighborhood. City officials informed the owner of Culver City Ice Arena of its findings last week. They said a use variance granted in 1960 prohibits the use of the property for anything except an ice rink. The new lessee, Planet Granite, plans to convert the 52-year-old rink into a rock climbing, fitness and yoga facility.

The Getty Research Institute is absorbing yet another chunk of New York City's experimental-arts patrimony, having recently bought a huge archive of video art, video and audio recordings of live performances, photographs, original posters and other materials documenting the first three decades of work created at the Kitchen, a space in lower Manhattan that since 1971 has tried with frequent success to foster creative breakthroughs in visual art, performance...

A Los Angeles jury Tuesday found state Sen. Roderick D. Wright, a fixture in area Democratic politics, guilty on eight felony counts of perjury and voter fraud. Prosecutors said Wright, the first member of the Legislature to be convicted of a felony since the Shrimpscam sting of the 1990s, could face more than eight years behind bars and be banned for life from holding other elective office. It is unclear whether he must forfeit his Senate seat. The lawmaker, who sat with his head bowed as a criminal courts clerk read the verdicts, had no comment.

More instructors than ever are being evaluated in detail in the Los Angeles Unified School District and only a small percentage are being rated as substandard, according to testimony Wednesday in litigation aimed at reducing teacher job protections. The results of a new evaluation system became a major topic in the Los Angeles Superior Court trial, which pits the state and teachers unions against a group of families allied with advocates and donors seeking to reshape state education law. Last year, L.A. Unified carried out its new evaluation system with 10,843 instructors, about 42% of the classroom workforce.

Even when you're slinging angry birds across the screen of your smartphone, the National Security Agency may be tracking your information, Monday reports said. The New York Times , the Guardian and Pro Publica have revealed documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden that say the government agency and Britain's Government Communications used data from numerous smartphone apps to track users' locations, age, sex and other personal information. This initiative is referred to as "the mobile surge" in some of the documents . The surveillance tapped apps of popular services like Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn and Twitter for user information such as address books, buddy lists and phone logs.

Thousands of pages of secret church documents released Tuesday as part of a court settlement provide an unprecedented look at how the Archdiocese of Chicago for years failed to protect children from abusive priests. The documents provide new details and insights into how the nation's third-largest archdiocese quietly shuttled accused priests from parish to parish and failed to notify police of child abuse allegations. The paper trail, going back decades, also portrays painfully slow progress toward reform, accountability and openness.

Inside a small TV studio in Los Angeles, Ondi Timoner is absorbed again in the making of documentaries. She's on the phone discussing editing options for one project, then planning for the fundraising event of another. Standing nearby is director Patrick Creadon, her guest this afternoon on "B.Y.O.D. " (for "Bring Your Own Documentary"), Timoner's weekly online chat show for TheLip.tv. They have much to talk about. Timoner, 41, twice won the Grand Jury Prize for documentary feature at Sundance: for her explosive 2004 rock doc "Dig!"

WASHINGTON - The alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has written a rambling, deeply religious manifesto that suggests Muslims should not use violence to spread Islam - a sharp departure from his earlier boasts of waging violent jihad against the U.S. and other non-Muslim nations. The unclassified comments by Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who will soon turn 50 and who has spent the last decade in U.S. custody, come a year and a half into the pretrial phase of his military commission trial.

On the morning of the fourth day of closures that snarled traffic leading to the George Washington bridge last September - the result of what New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said was political retribution by his staff - the executive director of the port authority that controls the bridge sent a scathing, early-morning email to top staff and board members. In an email stamped 7:44 a.m., Patrick Foye slammed the closures and said he was calling for the lanes to be opened as soon as possible.